By: Spooks
~ ~ ~ ~
“Hand me that hair tie?” Relena asked, nodding her head in the direction of the dresser as she gathered her locks into a low ponytail.
“Why didn’t you get it before you started doing that?” Wufei returned, swiping his hand across the furniture top and retrieving the little black band.
“Because you were standing right there,” she replied, taking the tie from him. “Thank you.”
Wufei snorted softly and plopped down beside her on the edge of the bed.
“What’s wrong?” Relena asked, finishing with her hair. “Is this thing with my brother bothering you?”
Wufei shrugged, glancing sideways at her. “A bit. The situation does add unnecessary tension to an already stressful environment.”
Relena cranked her eyebrow up, looking at him for a long few seconds. “When I find out what he’s so flustered about, I’ll let you know, and then something will have to happen to get rid of this ridiculousness. Because if I know my brother, he’ll be randomly appearing sometime today and hauling me off to warn me away from you for whatever reason. I still think brother feels like he needs to make up for lost time, so he’ll almost certainly want to ‘protect me’ from you,” she finished, wrinkling her nose.
Wufei chuckled. “You know, I’ve wondered about this for a while...Why do you always call him ‘brother’ now?”
“Because I don’t know what else to call him. As you know, he’s taken the legal name of Zechs Marquise, and everyone else calls him ‘Zechs,’ so it stands to reason that he wants to be called that...but I just can’t. He’s my brother, my big brother Milliardo, even if he doesn’t go by that name anymore. If I call him that, though, he gets really uncomfortable. So he’s just ‘my brother’ now, not ‘Milliardo.’ If that makes any sense,” She sighed.
“It does,” Wufei nodded.
Relena took another deep breath and shook her head lightly. “Heh. All right, enough of this sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves. Let’s go see if anyone is in the rec room, the one with the pool table.”
Wufei forced a small smile, attempting to get rid of the heaviness that had pressed down on his shoulders and settled in his chest. “All right.”
~ ~ ~ ~
A soft knock on Sylvia’s door caused the woman to jump, painfully jarring the brush in her hair. Wincing, she removed the bristles from her blond strands carefully, then turned away from her dresser mirror. She was expecting Ophelia to come by and talk to her, but the girl wasn’t due for at least another ten minutes. A smile lit her face. Maybe it was Gregory. They didn’t share a room yet...but that didn’t mean...Sylvia blushed.
Opening the door, she was surprised to see the maid whom Ophelia had made friends with. “Hi, Miss Noventa, I’m here with fresh towels. If you’ll let me in, I’ll go ahead and get the old ones out of your way as well.”
“Sure,” Sylvia stepped back, allowing the younger woman to enter. “Uh, I don’t want to sound rude, but do you normally come by this early?”
“Oh, no, ma’am, we usually do these towel runs when the room’s occupant isn’t present, mainly because we don’t want to wake anyone. But I met Ophelia in the hallway, and she said that you’d probably be up. But I still tried to knock quietly, just in case,” Jenny smiled, carrying out an armful of towels and dumping them in the rolling car that stood in the hallway. “With all that’s going on, we’re all trying to get our daily work done as quickly as possible. We’re trying to be more alert to security and the temp staff, just in case. I’m sorry if I intruded upon you.”
“It’s no problem, I don’t mind at all,” Sylvia replied. “Did you say extra security?”
Jenny nodded, looking around the hallway quickly and lowering her voice. “After what happened with poor Tara, the rest of the staff is up in arms. I mean, think about it, if someone would threaten someone as sweet as her, then they probably wouldn’t hesitate to do it again to another one of us. We’re looking out for ourselves as well as the guests now.”
“That makes sense,” Sylvia nodded, sighing. “I think most of us are just trying not to think about it too hard. Heero and Duo look so stressed, something rare for them, and with all that’s happening everyone is on the edge.”
“Are they really?” Jenny asked. “I’ve only really spoken to Mr. Maxwell, but I had heard that the other staffers thought the two of them looked pretty freaked. Hearing it from someone who knows them well is pretty worrying. Uh...I didn’t mean to imply that people were saying that they looked horrible or anything,” she ducked her head nervously, biting her lower lip. “But the staff has noticed that the guests look stressed, that’s all.”
“I understand what you’re getting at. I think mostly people are worried by the sheer amount of things that have happened to Heero and Duo. It’s all these little things, piling on top of each other, you know? It’s enough to remind everyone about the real world and the total shit that can happen to us just because of the past...but it’s also just enough to remind everyone else about their own problems. It’s just so tense and I hate it,” Sylvia pursed her lips, then shook her head. “I’m sorry, I kind of went on a bit of a tangent there, didn’t I?”
“Oh, I don’t mind,” Jenny smiled, ducking her head. “Good luck dealing with things, I know you’ve got to still be concerned about your fiancé’s uh, IVRD thing. That kind of thing’s happened in our family, so I know it can be hard to deal with. Maybe everything will work out for everyone in the end?”
“I hope so. Thank you for your concern, and also, thank you for allowing Ophelia to hang around you. Greg and I are really pleased that she’s made a couple of friends on this trip,” Sylvia replied.
Jenny smiled openly. “She’s really cool! It’s been great having someone to talk to,” she looked tiredly at her bin of towels. “Anyway, I don’t mean to be rude, but I have to finish up my rounds with these.”
“Sure,” Sylvia smiled back, patting the girl’s shoulder. “Don’t work too hard, and all that.”
Jenny laughed. “Thanks.”
~ ~ ~ ~
Quatre terminated the telephone call with a very deliberate stab of his index finger. He slumped down in his computer chair. “Well, that was unpleasant.”
“You dealt with it well,” Trowa replied, laying his hands on Quatre’s shoulders. “You didn’t really have to call him at all.”
“After he blew up at Mrs. Jessam yesterday when she canceled for us? It was unprofessional and uncalled for him to react so rudely. I couldn’t ignore the abuse of my employee, even if I can understand why he would be angry. It said right there in the contract that any cancellations must be made at least a week before the scheduled date, or full payment must be made, and Mrs. Jessam made it clear that payment would still be made,” Quatre frowned, slumping against the chair’s back.
“Well, when he saw it was you on the phone he sure did a double take,” Trowa said, bending over the back of the chair slightly to peer over the top of Quatre’s head, down at his face.
“Yeah, he looked more than a little shocked,” Quatre smirked suddenly, tipping his head back to look up at Trowa. “Even more so when I was utterly polite to him. Strange how people are always looking for an angry sort of confrontation when it really isn’t necessary.”
“You just like to use that smile of yours for the forces of evil, don’t you?” Trowa chuckled, rubbing Quatre’s shoulders to assure the blond that he was joking. “So polite and understanding as you rip another businessman apart verbally.”
Quatre made a face. “That’s kind of unpleasant to hear, Trowa. Am I really like that?”
“Only when you have to be,” Trowa shrugged, leaning down further, tilting the computer chair back further.
“Hm.”
“You want to venture back out into the rest of the house again? We barely got a chance to laugh at Wufei and Relena playing pool,” Trowa suggested.
Quatre laughed, winding his arms up and back over the top of the chair, around his fiancé’s waist. “Sounds like a plan. Although I think we should go and see if Heero and Duo have decided to come out of their room yet. I think they were all hyped up for something to happen last night, and when it didn’t, they were relieved and disappointed. Personally, I think they can be disappointed all they like. I’m glad nothing happened.”
“As am I,” Trowa agreed, “This whole thing is a mess.”
“At least they’re going to call Sally tonight,” Quatre mused as he craned his neck up for a kiss.
Trowa obliged, then let the chair tip back up to it’s normal position so that Quatre could stand up. “Indeed,” He replied, leading the way to the door. “It’s probably best for everyone. I really thought Wufei was going to blow up at them yesterday when he came in here.”
“It’s just because he was worried,” Quatre said, closing the bedroom door behind him after stepping into the corridor.
“I know, and Heero and Duo know that too, but it’s still indicative of just how far the situation has advanced,” Trowa shrugged one shoulder. “When people get this tense, they miss things. Therefore it’s usually best to let someone else take over, at least to a certain extent.”
“Yeah...But it’s so easy to make that kind of call when we’re not the ones being targeted,” Quatre shook his head, reaching out a hand to fiddle with the gold necklace around his fiancé’s neck. Satisfied with touching the ring threaded onto the necklace, he let his hand trail down to take Trowa’s, squeezing it.
Trowa squeezed back as they turned a corner in the hallway. “All the logic in the world can’t rationalize away emotion.”
“That’s so true. Life would be easier if it did, though,” Quatre replied.
They were almost at Duo and Heero’s door when it opened. Duo grinned briefly, throwing his hand up in a quick wave. “Hey, guys. Looking for us, or are you just trying to find something to do?”
Trowa considered for a moment. “Yes.”
Heero snorted lightly, amused as he followed Duo out of the room.
For his part, Duo just groaned. “That clears everything up. Thank you, Trowa.”
“How are you two doing?” Quatre asked as they started down the hallway in a loose group.
“What do you mean?” Duo countered, a puzzled look crossing his face.
“Well, you know, with nothing happening last night and all...you both seemed almost disappointed,” Quatre replied slowly, choosing his words.
“We were,” Heero said, glancing around the hallway as he spoke.
“Why, exactly?” Trowa asked, looking back slightly to glance at his friend.
“We were prepared for something to happen, for a confrontation. When nothinghappened, it was both a mental and physical letdown. Plus it was a reiteration of just how little control we have in this situation if she refuses to be baited,” Heero replied succinctly, still looking around.
“That about sums it up,” Duo added, frowning as he noticed Heero’s distraction.
“It makes sense,” Quatre nodded. “That’s what we kind of figured.”
“Then why did you--never mind,” Duo shook his head. He looked around briefly at the hallway. “Where are we going? Are we just wandering around?”
“Actually, yes we are,” Quatre laughed quietly. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“I don’t feel comfortable talking about this in the corridor,” Heero said suddenly. “Let’s find somewhere to go.”
“Sorry, I should have known,” Quatre apologized, leading the way purposefully. A moment later they were in an empty room.
For a few minutes they just sat there, sharing a comfortable silence.
“Anybody wearing a watch? I left mine in the room,” Duo said.
“Almost twelve,” Heero replied, twisting his wrist around so that Duo could look at it as he spoke.
“Great, lunch is soon,” Duo muttered, patting his stomach. “That’ll give us something to do.”
“I’m sorry that there aren’t more activities planned,” Quatre broke in, frowning. “But, well, I did have to cancel tonight’s--"
“Hell, Quatre, it’s okay!” Duo held up a hand, waving it frantically. “Don’t be upset or anything, I wasn’t complaining. If it’s anyone’s fault for not having things to do, it’s ours for being stalked.”
“No, it’s the stalker’s fault,” Heero corrected, grabbing Duo’s waving hand out of the air and holding it.
“Okay, so it is, but still,” Duo made a face. “You know, I’m almost glad that we’re calling Sally again tonight. I’m ready to just turn everything over to the Preventers and be done with it. We’re not doing much good trying to draw the bitch out or figure out what the hell is going on by ourselves,” he finished, rubbing his free hand across his eyes tiredly.
Trowa leaned forward, his mouth forming a small line. “Are you two really all right?” He asked, glancing between Duo and Heero.
“I don’t even know right now,” Duo replied, gently nudging Heero with his elbow.
“I think that we just might be over our heads in this one,” Heero added. “Call it an annoyed resignation, not a defeat. We don’t have nearly as many resources at our disposal as we would have if we were working this as a case. Add that to the mental strain of it all, meaning the wearing down we’ve faced despite the comfortable environment, and we’re at an extreme disadvantage.”
“Yeah,” Duo nodded, “About that ‘comfortable environment’...What we mean is that we appreciate the support. When this is all over, we’re probably going to have a lot of thanking to do. I don’t know how anyone is putting up with us.”
“No thanks are necessary,” Trowa replied.
Quatre shook his head, smiling. “Don’t worry about it.”
After a few more minutes of decidedly less comfortable silence, Trowa spoke up. “The timing of this all is uncanny; it’s been bothering me. This person happened to steal two of Quatre’s invitations to you, and then it was only within a few weeks of this get together that the bomb goes off. Plus the implications about earlier prep...it all points to a lot of planning.”
Heero looked sharply at Trowa. “What are you getting at?”
“Nothing, I just have a question: When did you two decide to actually move to Tokyo to look for your family, Heero?” Trowa asked quietly, his eyebrows drawn together in a tense line. “Was it before or after the invitations were sent out nine months ago? If you’d been considering it for a while, did something in particular push you into finally making the move?”
Duo’s eyes had widened. “Oh, shit. Are you implying that the bitch set us up for the move so she could blow our place up? That she had cased the apartment earlier and decided it was the best place to strike?”
Heero shook his head in two violent twists of his neck. “No, I think that she just blew up the place we happened to be living at the time. If she planned for us to go here, to Quatre’s, then that would make sense. However, she could have taken several bits of our mail if she had been watching us for that long. She probably just used the stolen invitation she sent here earlier as a false lead to get us to be more paranoid than we should be, causing us to make mistakes and not think logically.”
“Heero...” Duo bit his lip, taking his hand out of Heero’s crushing grip and rubbing the man’s back instead. “Calm down.”
Quatre narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking. He and Trowa exchanged a long look before Quatre spoke. “Heero, I think you may be protesting too much. In fact, I know you are.”
“He is,” Duo confirmed, ignoring Heero’s sudden glare. “We had started getting more of those ‘missing children’ fliers dropped in our mailbox...you know the kind that cycle through about once a week? They have coupons on the back of them to encourage you to actually look at the kids’ pictures. Know what I’m talking about? Those things.”
Not waiting for an answer, Duo continued, “Well, we had been getting a bunch of those more frequently, and then there was a couple of those foreign resort ads that had started coming in with the junk mail...and most of them advertised on Earth, Asia specifically. So we just kind of up and moved. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and was probably just a giant coincidence.”
Heero had buried his face in his hands by this point, his elbows resting on his knees. “Duo, I can’t believe you told them that. It’s so stupid. We moved because it was time to move again, and we had been talking about going back down to Asia for a while. It just happened,” he said tiredly, glaring out between his fingers. “It had nothing to do with those missing children fliers.”
Duo smirked, patting Heero’s hunched over back. “Sure, you may not have said anything at the time, but I saw you sitting there memorizing those kids’ stats. You’re just a giant marshmallow, love.”
Heero sat up straight, raising an eyebrow and frowning. “Marshmallow?”
“Er,” Duo laughed nervously, tugging his hand out from between Heero’s back and the couch. “A marshmallow of steel?”
Heero snorted, rolling his eyes, sparking the others to laugh nervously, letting out a rush of tension. After a few minutes, they all felt a little better. A little.
~ ~ ~ ~
“We’re still horrible at this,” Relena stated, watching the cue ball ricochet around the table and drop neatly into a side pocket. She sighed heavily, clutching her heart and declaring in a loud, overdone tone, “And look, I managed to scratch. Again!” she wrinkled her nose at the pool table.
Wufei snickered quietly as he set the cue ball up for his own shot. “Needlessly dramatic woman.”
“And proud of it,” she chimed as he missed.
“Bah,” Wufei muttered back. “We’re both fairly coordinated people, there must be some reason why we seem to get continually worse at this game. The pool table must be cursed.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s it,” Relena agreed, her tone utterly serious. “We must be sure to inform Quatre to have an exorcist out as soon as possible to rectify the situation.”
“Indeed,” Wufei nodded, sniffing haughtily before laughing as Relena missed her shot.
“Or we could just suck,” Relena said, shaking her head in burst of frustration. She leaned back against the wall and watched as Wufei finally sunk a striped ball into a corner pocket. “It’s about time.”
“Shush, or you might break my concentration,” Wufei replied.
Relena giggled, rolling her eyes. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye, out in the hallway. Zechs was slowly walking by the open doorway, bouncing baby Tredici on his shoulder.
“Wufei, my brother just passed the room. Do you think now would be a good time to go talk to him?” She asked.
Wufei tensed, then attempted his shot. It missed. “I suppose,” he replied, not looking up from the pool table’s felt surface.
Relena frowned, then pushed away from the wall to stand in front of him. Planting a quick kiss on his lips, she smiled up at him. “Now look, no matter what, nothing will change except we’ll gain a bit of knowledge, okay? Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried.”
“All right then,” she handed him her cue stick, stealing another, longer kiss. “I’ll be right back.”
Wufei watched her leave. He sat, perched on the edge of the pool table, setting both cues down. After a moment, he picked one up again and tossed it back and forth between his hands, then twirled it a few times.
No, he wasn’t worried.
Not at all.
He scowled, putting down the cue. He’d find Relena later, or she’d find him. He just couldn’t stand there, waiting, like a fool. Nodding once sharply, he left the room, heading the opposite direction Relena had gone following Zechs. Maybe he’d run into someone.
~ ~ ~ ~
A few minutes later found Wufei stopping in mid stride and fairly jumping back around the corner he had just rounded. He counted to ten mentally, then walked away. He stopped again, then headed back to the corner and peered around it.
No, he had not been hallucinating. Mariemeia and Hakim were kissing, right there in the middle of the hallway.
Did kids these days have no common sense?
Wufei cleared his throat.
The two teenagers jumped apart immediately, faces flushing bright red. “Uh, hi, Wufei!” May stuttered out, her eyes wide. She ducked her head, biting her lip.
Hakim just stared down at the carpet and shifted back and forth on his feet a few times. He had his hands jammed in his pockets.
“You really shouldn’t do that in the middle of the hallway,” Wufei said, fighting between the urge to laugh or to haul Hakim off and warn the boy to stay away from the girl he thought of as a surrogate daughter-figure. But then, he had accepted that Mariemeia was old enough to decide things on her own, and it wasn’t his place to do anything...so Wufei settled on laughing quietly.
Hakim looked up quickly, his eyes widening at the sound of the unexpected laughter. “You’re not mad?!”
“I’m not happy, but I trust the two not to be inordinately stupid about how far you carry things. However, there is a time and place for, ahem, physical contact,” Wufei explained, watching the two squirm. “And the middle of the hallway usually isn’t the place.”
“Wufei! Go away, you’re embarrassing me!” Mariemeia hissed, covering her blushing face with one hand. The other she waved in Wufei’s direction, making shooing motions. “Ack! I cannot believe you caught us! I’m going to crawl under a rock and die, okay?”
“Sounds fine,” Wufei’s laughter tapered off into quiet snickers, “But really, I have no idea why you’d be so embarrassed.”
“Go away go away go away! Your sarcasm isn’t helping,” Mariemeia said, now less embarrassed and more annoyed.
Wufei just shook his head, turned, and walked back the way he had come. He swore he could almost hear their jaws drop as he continued on.
That was fun.
He was almost back to the rec room where he had started his wander through the corridors when Relena rounded the corner in a blind fury, Zechs trailing her, looking equally annoyed. Tredici was gone, but her burping cloth was still draped over the man’s shoulder.
“Wufei! Why aren’t you in the pool room?” Relena asked, her brows drawing together angrily.
“Did you expect me to wait in there for who knows how long?” Wufei replied.
She blinked. “Well, no.”
Wufei looked back and forth between Relena and Zechs. The blond man was standing a few feet behind Relena, his arms crossed over his chest as he tapped his foot loudly on the carpet. Relena kept her back fully to his brother, her shoulders bunched up in a tense line.
“Relena,” Zechs said loudly.
“Wufei, my brother is a jealous, horribly deluded idiot. You should ignore him,” Relena stated, putting her hands on her hips, still keeping her back to Zechs. She continued, enunciating her words as she continued to act as though Zechs wasn’t there, “He told me a load of stupidity then wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to reply. Now he’s trying to keep me away from you. I am very annoyed with him right now.”
Wufei did his best not to look shocked. He was honestly surprised that she wasn’t glowing red. “Uh, all right.”
“Yes, all right is right!” Relena declared, grabbing his arm and walking through the nearest open doorway, which just happened to be the pool room. She closed the door firmly behind them.
Wufei watched the shadow of Zechs’ legs underneath the crack at the bottom of the door. He heard the other man mutter something angrily, then watched the twin shadows disappear in the direction Wufei had returned from.
“What is going on?” Wufei asked deliberately, turning his full attention to Relena.
“I asked brother why he doesn’t like you,” she replied, her eyes narrowing into icy slits. “And he told me. He is an idiot.”
“...Okay,” Wufei said, still not knowing how to react. She seemed to want to talk, so he figured that letting her get it out would be the best thing he could do.
“I’ll tell you later,” Relena continued, her eyes softening. She sighed, her shoulders dropping from their hard square. “It’s petty and it’s based on falsehoods, so rest assured, you’re not to blame at all for why he’s being an ass. I apologize for being angry, but it just annoys me so much when people don’t gather enough information, jump to conclusions, then---ARGH!---and of course its more maddening when it involves someone I care about.”
She scowled, smoothing her palms down over her pants legs in an eruption of violent movement.
Wufei watched her, biting his lip. He had rarely seen Relena this angry over anything, never mind about something that had to do with him. He felt guilty, but more than that, he was concerned. Had he, indirectly, now caused a rift to open between two siblings? Damn. Damn.
He tentatively held his arms out to his sides, not sure what exactly he was doing.
A scarce second later and Relena was hugging him fiercely, her voice muffled against his shoulder, “I’m sorry. It’s just that so much has happened and now this, you know? I didn’t mean to lose my temper.”
He stroked her back, “It’s okay. Remember who you’re talking to about your temper, huh?”
“You’re awful,” Relena replied through sniffling laughter. “But so am I.”
“Is that so bad?”
“Not at all.”
~ ~ ~ ~
“So, no shuttles are leaving for the colonies until after three?”
Pause.
“No, I wouldn’t like to book my transport right now. Thank you for being so helpful, though.”
Polite laughter.
“Thank you, you have a great day as well!”
The figure terminated the call on the portable phone, a wide grin on its face.
They would not take her away from here, even if the figure made one last little move, a decorative touch.
Excellent.
Oh, how lucky it was to have destiny on its side! Everything had worked so perfectly, even down to this minute detail. Assurance was a glorious thing!
She had been preparing the groundwork all day. At least she was good for something. But not much else....And not for much longer.
That idea had been a masterstroke.
The figure locked the apartment door behind it, never to return. The place had been stripped of fingerprints, the telescope, and anything else that might be incriminating.
The artist would view the publics’ reaction to her masterpiece on the news, free from her and with all its rewards intact and snuggled warmly to its chest.
Life was going to be beautiful.
~ ~ ~ ~
“Hey, Heero?” Duo whispered, leaning close to his lover’s ear. “Do you get the impression that you’re missing something here? Because I know that I am.”
Heero looked around the big table, taking in the way Relena had scooted her chair as close to Wufei’s as possible.
Zechs sent simmering glares boiling from the couple to Mariemeia and back again periodically. The girl, for her part, had seemed to have developed a permanent blush and, for once, was mysteriously without Hakim.
Noin bounced Tredici and looked otherwise pensive.
Sylvia and Gregory were glancing at Zechs, confused expressions on their faces as they talked quietly. Ophelia, sitting across from them, watched their conversation.
Quatre and Trowa were eating silently, only passing occasional words to each other.
Hilde seemed fine, fully engrossed in her food, only looking up briefly to talk to Dorothy. Eating for two seemed to be a duty she took very seriously. Dorothy looked mostly bemused as she conversed with the pregnant woman. However, the tall blonde’s attention was divided between the anger emanating from Zechs directed at both her best friend and her cousin.
Heero turned his head, speaking directly into Duo’s ear. “I think we’re all missing something.”
Duo shuddered briefly at the warm breath washing over his neck before replying quietly. “Mmm. Well, I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. Right now it just seems like something crawled up Zechs’ ass and died.”
Heero snorted, barely stifling a his laughter. “That might be one way to put it.”
Duo snickered, opening his mouth to reply when Mariemeia stood up abruptly, her chair scraping across the floor loudly and clattering as though it might topple over.
“If you have something to say, please say it,” she demanded, her young voice on the verge of cracking. She stared at Zechs, her face still flushed.
It was as though the air had been sucked out of the room.
Tredici started to cry, and Noin shot Zechs a perturbed look before working a pacifier into the baby’s mouth.
Wufei looked from Mariemeia to Zechs, frowning. “What’s going on here? May, are you all right?”
“No I’m not! He--" She pointed at Zechs, “Scared the hell out of Hakim and embarrassed the hell out of me, now he wouldn’t stop glaring at me like I did something horrible.”
Dorothy raised her eyebrows at this, her mouth drawing into a tight line as she sat up straighter in her chair.
“I do not think now would be the time to discuss this,” Zechs replied evenly. “I was merely attempting to help you.”
“Yeah, right! Of course! What was I thinking?!” Mariemeia threw her hands up in the air before turning and stomping out the room.
Wufei and Dorothy exchanged a look before the two of them followed her out. Zechs got to his feet, almost chasing after them.
Relena rose as well, but Noin shook her head at her. “I don’t know what’s going on, Relena, but you’re already angry with Zechs. It won’t help.”
A circuit of glances were exchanged around the table at that statement.
Murmuring voices came from the hallway, and an indiscernible exclamation was punctuated with a set of stomping footsteps returning to the room.
A few seconds later, the four reentered. Zechs strode back to stand behind his seat, his fingers grasping the back with white-knuckles.
Dorothy had her arm around Mariemeia’s shoulders and was looking down her nose at Zechs.
Wufei shook his head angrily, not making eye contact with anyone.
“I apologize for my outburst,” Mariemeia spoke up suddenly, her voice composed and almost frighteningly cold. “I did not mean to disturb anyone’s meal. However, I was extremely displeased with Zechs, and did not think clearly about how my actions would affect the enjoyment of your own lunch.”
Zechs frowned, suddenly looking weary, “May, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize...”
“You didn’t realize that I’m fourteen years old and have been capable of watching out for myself since I was seven? You didn’t realize that your words could have ruined something that I’ve never had before? You didn’t realize that you’ve been an asshole since you showed up here? You can’t even look past your own problems, can you?” Mariemeia replied calmly, shaking her head as she pulled away from Dorothy to sit back down. She picked up her fork and stabbed a piece of food delicately.
Duo and Heero exchanged and utterly confused glance before turning together to look at Quatre and Trowa. The other couple was exchanging their own set of worried looks.
Down the table, Hilde was watching the whole affair with a single raised eyebrow as she continued to eat absently. Sylvia and Gregory looked distinctly uncomfortable, and Ophelia was viewing it all through wide eyes.
Noin sighed sadly, comforting her fussing baby and fidgeting in her own seat. She kept glancing at the doorway as though she wanted to run to it.
Zechs shook his head. “If you won’t accept my apology--"
“Apologies don’t make everything magically better,” May cut in, not looking up.
The blond man sighed and dropped down into his chair. “Then what can I do?”
“Stop being an asshole.”
Duo almost choked on his drink.
Zechs’ jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”
“She’s right, you’re being an asshole,” Relena nodded, sniffing haughtily.
“Look, I know that he’s acting a bit out of line, but could we refrain from calling my husband names?” Noin cut in, frowning. “I mean, really, name calling? Why don’t you all just have it out, right now, and get it over with?”
“Fine!” Relena replied, pursing her lips. She paused, “Uh, Luce, you know I’m not angry with you, right?”
“Of course, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to back up Zechs. There are things that people don’t know. I think that if we just got everything out in the open, then perhaps this situation would end more quickly, and everyone could stop fighting. Of course, keeping our tempers might be the key to the solution,” Noin said reasonably. She covered Zechs’ hand with her own, squeezing it. “That goes for you too, Zechs.”
The spectators looked from Zechs to the ‘opposing forces.’
“This is not going to end well,” Duo muttered, leaning close to Heero’s ear.
Heero just shook his head minutely.
“Okay, then, Zechs,” Mariemeia started, “Why do you treat me like a child?”
“Because you are a child. You get to be a child, you should be happy about that,” Zechs replied.
“Zechs, I haven’t really been a child since my mother died. I was used as a puppet for a megalomaniac family, my dead mother’s family, when I was eight. Stop playing the over-protective father figure. I get that from Wufei already, but he’s a lot more reasonable about it,” May shot back, her grip on her fork tightening. “He trusts me to make my own decisions. He even saw what you saw, and didn’t blow a gasket.”
Zechs’ eyes narrowed. “As if he would have a problem with it.”
“What?” Wufei broke in, a look of understanding crossing his face as he figured out just what Zechs had caught May at.
“No one should listen to you about morality,” Zechs replied calmly. “You disgust me.”
Wufei’s hands curled into tight fists. “Does it have to do with my part in the Barton Uprising? If not, then what? I already asked you before if it had anything to do with Trieze’s death, and you told me flat out that he had ‘chosen his own end,’ whatever that means! Were you lying?” He asked, his voice rising in volume.
Mariemeia flinched.
“No, I wasn’t. It doesn’t have anything to do with that, although it does have to do with why he chose his end with you,” Zechs stabbed back, his tone getting angry.
“You wanted to have him die at your hands?” Wufei retorted, blinking rapidly. “I sure as hell didn’t want to kill him!”
“And we all know why that is!” Zechs’ face was a mask of pure fury. “It all makes sense why you wouldn’t object to May almost getting molested by that boy!”
“We were kissing!” May cried. She was hiding her face behind her hands. “Kissing happens! God! I can’t believe you!”
“What the hell are you talking about Zechs?” Wufei looked utterly baffled, his jaw clenching.
“No! STOP IT!” Relena shouted. “There are things you don’t kno--"
“Just that you, at the age of fifteen, would have sex with a man, an enemy, who was almost ten years your senior,” Zechs hissed, cutting Relena off.
Total silence.
Mariemeia was crying.
Wufei gaped, his mouth working. His arms had dropped to the sides of his chair, limp and hanging. He stared at Zechs with wide eyes, blinking in rapid shock. “...what?”
“Please, don’t play innocent. Everyone in Oz heard the rumors,” Zechs replied, his voice silky and low.
Noin cradled Tredici to her chest. “Zechs. Stop.”
Wufei was still trying to find words.
A sparkle of cold, utterly malicious laughter broke the hard air. “My, my, Zechs. You are delusional,” Dorothy continued laughing, her gaze piercing. “Is that why you think he stopped sleeping with you? You really are a fool. Didn’t you think that it was part of his plan? Two diametrically opposed former lovers battling it out to prove how meaningless the glory of war really turned out to be?”
The shock in the room moved from watching Wufei to watching Zechs.
“What? Sleeping with...?” Relena echoed, her eyes wide.
Mariemeia peeked out between her fingers, her voice tiny. “You didn’t know?”
Noin stood up and walked towards the doorway. Her face was set into a hard mask.
“Luce!” Zechs moved to follow her, sounding almost desperate.
She stopped in the doorway. “Zechs, I love you. I support you. But I can’t be here to hear this. I’m sorry. I really wish I could, but I can’t,” Noin replied, not turning around. “We’ll wait for you in our bedroom. Tredici is starting to get really fussy.”
“All right,” Zechs nodded, suddenly looking very tired. He slumped back down in his seat.
“Zechs,” Relena said.
He looked at her, shocked. “Relena?”
“Will you listen to me now that you’ve made a fool of yourself?” She asked, her voice businesslike. Without waiting for an answer, she continued. “Like I tried to tell you this morning, and like I tried to tell you before you blurted out your idiocy for all to hear: There are things you do not know. You don’t know Wufei. You don’t know him at all. Therefore you have no right to make judgments about his past or what his morality is like, because you don’t know.”
“You’re taking his side?” Zechs asked quietly, his frown a scar across his face.
“I am enlightening you,” Relena replied. “Which is more than I should be doing right now, believe me.”
“Relena,” Wufei took a deep breath. “Zechs. Did you know that I was married before the war?”
Zechs turned his head in Wufei’s direction, his eyebrows shooting up even as he refused to raise his gaze. “No.”
“I was. It was arranged. But I still loved my wife, even if we didn’t really like each other. I named my Gundams after her. She died in my arms,” he said, his voice a monotone.
A sharp, bitter laugh tore its way out of his throat before he continued. “You must think I’m a monster. To betray her memory, to do something like that with an enemy--albeit an enemy that intrigued me, one I respected greatly--but an enemy is an enemy. You would think I would betray my cause? You would think I would betray her memory? You must think I am the literal scum of the earth. It actually explains a lot about your behavior towards me, though.”
“I...I was...wrong,” Zechs looked lost, his voice coming slowly, in bursts. “I...apologize. I didn’t know...”
“You didn’t want to know,” Relena shook her head. “Brother, Mariemeia was right earlier: Apologizes don’t make everything magically better.”
He turned to her, his eyes wide. “What can I do?”
“You’re asking the wrong person,” Relena replied. “Make that people.”
Zechs looked to Wufei, then to Mariemeia and back again.
“I don’t know,” Wufei shook his head. “I just don’t know.”
“Just stop being an ass. You’re like family, so stop being an ass to the rest of my family. Things will eventually get better, they always do, but just leave it alone for a while,” May choked out, scrubbing at her eyes with the heels of her hands.
“I’m sorry,” Zechs echoed. “How could I...I’m an idiot.”
“Hey, Zechs,” Duo said loudly.
The blond man started, reminded that there were other people present. “Yes?”
“Wallow in your self-pity or whatever, but you better be damn grateful that things are moving along a bit and that you’re going to get to make up for being a goddamn jerk. Because yeah, you could have just made yourself some enemies, okay?” Duo cocked his head to the side, giving the man a serious look.
“Was that a...?”
“Nope, it would have been a promise, but like I said, you make reparations and no one will have a problem,” Duo replied, smirking slightly. “Wufei’s my brother. No one fucks with my family.”
“Understood,” Zechs nodded, his shoulders tensing as he absorbed in the very level stares of four former Gundam pilots.
“Can we just stop this?” Wufei asked suddenly. “I appreciate your sentiment Duo, and I really do, believe me, but now is not the time,” he sighed. “May, are you alright?”
“Yeah,” she nodded absently, her fingers clutching her dinner napkin.
“Good. I’m leaving the table now,” Wufei announced, standing up. He left the room in a few quick strides.
“I think that would be a good idea,” Relena said, hurrying to catch up.
“Yeah,” May said, repeating herself. “Bye.”
Dorothy followed her out.
Zechs still looked shell-shocked. He left without a word.
Hilde looked around the table at everyone left. “Holy fuck.”
“I think that sums it up,” Duo nodded.
“Yeah,” Quatre said quietly, his eyes wide. His hand had taken up seemingly permanent residence over the center of his chest. He waved away Trowa’s concerned hand. “I’m fine. Blocked it pretty well.”
“Sylvia, you have some really interesting friends,” Greg muttered to his fiancée.
“Interesting, sure,” she repeated, her voice hollow and shocked.
“Well, at least it’s over,” Duo said.
“We hope,” Heero added.
“Yeah, we hope. I don’t know if I could sit through that again,” Duo shook his head, his voice tapering off in volume. “Damn, despite that all, I feel really sorry for Zechs. He must have had such a tainted perception...and then to find out that he was so incredibly wrong...at least he could admit it now...”
“Excuse me?” A new voice said from the doorway. A male staffer stood there, looking sheepish.
“Yes, Tom?” Quatre asked.
“Mail. And there’s something in it. Sorry,” he replied, handing an envelope to his boss. “Mrs. Jessam had me bring it right in, because it didn’t have any postage or anything.”
“Goddamn. If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” Duo threw his hands up, leaning back in his chair. “At least it’s a change in subject.”
Heero took the piece of mail from Quatre’s outstretched hand. No postage. Sealed, pristine white envelope, smaller than what would be used for a normal letter. Instead of an address, only the numbers 01 and 02 were written on the front in block letters.
With a growl, Heero tore open the flap and removed its contents in one angry burst of movement.
“It’s the second stolen invitation,” he announced without even bothering to open the small card. “I’m surprised it didn’t show up sooner.”
Duo took the card and examined the outside carefully before opening it. “What the...?” He picked at a small sliver of metal taped to the inside.
“Let me see that!” Heero demanded. Duo handed it over without a word, his eyes suddenly very wide. After a moment, Heero laid the card down on the table. “It’s a piece of a razor blade. With blood on it. Just like the linings of the first envelope.”
“Like in the beginning...” Duo shook his head. “Shit.”
“Whose blood do you think it is?” Trowa asked.
“Oh, not even funny,” Duo chewed his lip. “It’s NOT one of the pieces that cut me. That’s impossible. It’s got to be one of the pieces the bitch didn’t use when making the first envelope.”
“Fair enough,” Trowa returned. “It was just something to think about.”
“Yeah, I know. Sorry to snap,” Duo replied. “Damn. What time is it?”
“Three,” Heero said, sounding surprised. “We lost two hours sitting here eating lunch.”
“Well, I don’t think eating had much to do with it,” Hilde chimed in grimly. “So much food going to waste.”
“Meh, eat up, pregnant lady,” Duo gestured to the table.
“I suppose dinner will have to be later tonight,” Quatre said absently, staring off into space. He blinked, coming back to reality. “There was no address on that envelope. It must have been put in the mailbox by hand.”
“Well, yeah,” Duo replied, raising his eyebrows skeptically.
“The mailbox has a camera on it,” Heero said suddenly. “We haven’t paid attention to it lately because the other things have come in the mail normally.”
“That’s right,” Quatre nodded. He grinned, excitement crackling across his features. “She might have just made her mistake.”
The two couples left the table in a rush.
Hilde looked at Gregory, Sylvia, and Ophelia. “So, uh are you going to finish your food?” She asked, her smile convulsing timidly on her face.
Skittish, quiet laughter was her only reply.
~ ~ ~ ~
“Hey, Quatre? What’s with the sudden rush of people?” Duo asked as they walked past a staff room bustling with activity.
“Oh, shift change,” the blond replied. “That reminds me. I need to let Mrs. Jessam know that dinner will be later. Does anyone mind the detour?”
“It’s fine,” Heero shook his head.
Quatre shot him a quick smile and sought out his head of staff. About fifteen minutes later it was settled, changes made and the four fussed over by the worried older woman.
A deep rumble of thunder suddenly shook through the house.
“Whoa, that was...wow...” Duo rushed to the nearest window. “Awesome.”
“Yeah, I still can’t get over the thunder, either,” Quatre laughed quietly, moving to the window as well. “We get a lot of electrical storms in the afternoon around here, but we just haven’t the last two or so weeks since you arrived. The lightning is scary beautiful, if you can understand what I mean by that.”
“I think we can,” Heero mused, easing behind Duo and putting his chin on the other man’s shoulder to watch the darkening sky.
The clouds razed above the grayed earth in sharp gusts of wind.
~ ~ ~ ~
The last of the shift had just finished changing out. Time to lock the main gate and get ready for the first pop.
The sky was bruised. Would it bleed soon?
~ ~ ~ ~
Catherine looked out the window at the gathering storm. She braced herself slightly as the shuttled touched down on the runway.
She was so excited! The connecting flight she was originally supposed to take had been rerouted, so she had gotten upgraded to first class, and had ended up with less of a layover to boot.
Sometimes things just worked out like that, she thought, peering out at the runway. Catherine just hoped that she could make it to the house before the storm really kicked off. But first she had to get off the plane, go to the bathroom and freshen up a bit, get her luggage (which always took forever), hail a cab, and finally make the drive all the way out to the other end of the town, which she knew could take at least an hour if the traffic was thick. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too horrible at this time of the day.
Oh well, best to be thankful she was almost there. Yawning, she unbuckled her safety belt and waited for the plane to finish its taxi up to the terminal.
~ ~ ~ ~
Halfway around the world Sally fumbled with the hotel telephone beside her bed, picking up the handheld receiver and bringing it to her ear.
“Hello? Yes?”
She sat up, clutching the blankets to her chest as she listened.
“It found a match, right?”
Pause. “Oh, well that might need a bit more investigation, but it shouldn’t take too long now that the system search has more specific information. Am I right?”
She swung her legs off the side of the bed, tossing the covers out of the way as she continued to listen. Propping the receiver between her shoulder and neck, she fumbled through a drawer and started pulling out a neatly folded uniform.
“All right. I’ll be right there.”
Sally hung up the phone and hurried to get dressed.
~ ~ ~ ~
“Nothing,” Quatre shook his head, staring disbelievingly at the computer screen. “I can’t believe it.”
“But how did the envelope get into the mailbox?” Duo asked hollowly. He felt Heero’s hand find his own. “Maybe someone bribed the mailman?”
“Hilde would be the one to ask about that,” Heero said, speaking automatically.
“Oh my God! No!” Duo shook his head, closing his eyes tightly. “No! I’m not even going to consider it!”
“That’s not what I meant...but...” Heero grimaced.
“Wait!” Trowa held up both hands, as though he could stop the flow of words. “It could have always been put in the mail some other way. Maybe another staff member was threatened into slipping it into the pile. Don’t jump to conclusions.”
“I don’t think that’s any better. Besides, the staff was briefed this morning to be extra careful, and were instructed to come forward so we could protect them,” Quatre said quietly. “What if it was--"
A boom of thunder cut his words off, shaking the house just as the lights flickered out.
“Fuck!” Duo ducked his head, watching as the other three instantly dropped down to the floor in defensive crouches, covering each other’s backs. Old habits died hard, he thought, forcing down a bark of nervous laughter. How stupid, it was just the storm.
A low hissing noise edged over the hush.
The four looked around, not finding the source of the sound, their eyes still trying to adjust to the sudden darkness. A flash of lightning brightened the room again, followed immediately by another tremor of deafening thunder.
Quatre collapsed to the carpet with a muted thud.
Trowa was there instantly, checking pulse and breathing at the same time. He looked up at Heero and Duo, his eyes widening, beginning to glaze over. He shook his head, taking a deep breath to speak, but then fell over as well, his body protecting his fiancé’s almost instinctively.
Duo gasped, grabbing Heero’s arm even as Heero clutched onto him. Duo felt the world tilt and sat down hard. Heero thumped down as well, his legs jelly.
The two shared a desperate, horrified look of comprehension.
There were footsteps in the hallway.
The doorknob began to rotate.
They could hear it, but couldn’t turn to look. The world was spinning too much.
A painful crack of thunder. The wind howled like a beast.
They collapsed against each other soundlessly, pulled into a dark world.
A figure laughed.
~ ~ ~ ~